schlimazel_traveler

I really like the ship's water! I bring an insulated mug and refill with ice water at the beverage stations (I fill a clean glass and transfer to my mug) or ask for ice water at a bar. I bring along packets of "water helper" but don't wind up using it because the water is really nice.

When we were on Vision several years ago (2019), the hot entrees in the WJ were already in the side serving stations that hold the salad bar/fruit/antipasto selections on Grandeur and Enchantment. They also were extremely limited. Hot dogs, hamburgers, plain pasta. Probably a few other items that didn't register because we don't eat them (e.g. pork chops). The items that Grandeur offered as an *alternative* to the nice variety of entrees that changed every day. But that's all there was on Vision. I don't even remember what was in the central serving area. Dessert and salad, I suppose? Since they announced Vision was coming to Baltimore, I've been hoping things have improved, but I guess not. I'll adjust my expectations.

Does Vision still have an awkwardly-placed buffet station just inside the main doors, causing people serving themselves to block access for other people just trying to walk into the room? Both Grandeur and Enchantment figured out how to avoid that in an identical space.

A few years back, on Celebrity, they did extend the unlimited photo package to include MINOR children in another cabin. This meant any photo with anyone in our cabin or anyone in my younger daughter's cabin was included in the package. I am not sure whether pictures of my older daughter (who was not a minor) and her friend (in a third cabin) would have been included had they had any taken by themselves. As a practical matter, we've found that if the person with the package hands over their card at the beginning of a posing session, all the pictures of every permutation of the group wind up in the pile, whether or not the person who buys the package is in the photo. Or maybe it's my daughter's charm. She goes daily to pick up prints and have them added to her folder. I think by the end they would let her take any prints she wanted. She always ends up with pictures of herself with the photographers!

Thanks for this report. I'm glad to hear that Enchantment wasn't representative of the whole fleet. I am looking forward to hearing your experience on Vision. Our most disappointing overall food experience was on Vision in 2019 or so. (Even more disappointing than last month on Enchantment!) I am assuming the F&B manager has changed by now. I'm also hoping your experience on Grandeur is all that we remember from the Before Times. We had duck and lamb chops in the Windjammer!!

I think she will be asked to order ahead of time, but health restrictions will still be accommodated.

I was very pleasantly surprised on my last cruise. I don't even bother with the plastic-cup-of-something items anymore, but they actually had a pound cake recipe that they switched up daily (pistachio pound cake, apple pound cake, etc) that was GOOD! And a dense, almost marzipan-like, pie recipe they did a few variations on (apricot almond, peach almond) that I liked a lot. Plus, cafe latitudes had a fantastic brownie! I've never had a decent brownie, or maybe any brownie, on a cruise ship.

If I had known it was surimi, I might have tried the crab cake! My friends (Marylanders) thought it was pretty good. But they noticed it was served (in the WJ) without any type of sauce. The truth is, it has been a running joke with us since we first started cruising that the menu descriptions are baffling and misleading. But I loved that it didn't matter--if I was curious, I could try something and if I didn't like it, I could try something else. No opportunity cost, no buyer's remorse. I loved that the wait staff would hear us debating whether to order A, B, or C, and would just surprise us by bringing everything we'd contemplated. I imagine the wait staff loved delighting guests that way and must *hate* the new arrangements. It's sad all around. 😟

I remember our second time on Grandeur, when we met some very frequent cruisers who tipped us off to the pleasant experience of WJ dinner. On that cruise, most of the MDR offerings were available in the WJ, including duck breast and lamb chops!!! It was fantastic. I never saw that again...but I remember it fondly. Now there is no duck even on the MDR menus. It was "fancy" things like duck, rack of lamb, the various chilled fruit soups, baked Alaska, etc, that used to make the meals more interesting.

They had run out of trinkets on our last cruise, too. The port shopping host provided some items and they gave away bingo cards as well. Once we did a cruise where they handed out cards where we had to collect the activity hosts' signatures after each game (maybe only the winners? Or the winners got extras?). At the end of the cruise we could select prizes based on the number of signatures we had collected. The trinkets are silly but I like them. I could put RC zipper pulls on every zipper I have at this point but I still like them.

Yes!!!! Never lost the signal. Looking forward to having this upgraded service added to other ships! If you see the British Night dessert (sticky toffee pudding) anywhere -- I think it turned up in the WJ the following day-- be sure to try it. I have my complaints about the food but that was great.

There are tables on the pool deck just outside the WJ on the Enchantment, in a shaded/under cover area that was very pleasant. We are just off a 12-night and had almost all our meals outside.

I have combed through the menus from the past 12 days and can report a few vegetarian (not vegan) entrees did appear sporadically. A fettuccine Alfredo one night, a pesto tagliatelle one night. The menu no longer features identifiers to designate the presence of milk or to flag meat-free items, so it's anyone's guess whether the mushroom risotto is made with vegetable broth or chicken broth, and I prefer a don't ask, don't tell approach in this situation for my own choices, so I haven't inquired. My daughter who doesn't eat meat does eat fish (not shellfish), but would be very disappointed by the lack of salmon. Lots of tilapia! BTW, vegan moussaka is just AWFUL.

The water available at the beverage stations is really good. Much better than my less-preferred bottled water brands. Bring an insulated bottle. (But use a cup to refill it.)

The new MDR menus are really limiting, and I am definitely finding a less vegetarian-friendly selection in the WJ (I'm onboard Enchantment) than I remember. Things like ham in the scrambled eggs in the Windjammer, meat in the breakfast burritos in the Park cafe, meatless pasta sauce option usually a cream sauce, chorizo added to the poblano pepper soup ... Just seems unnecessary. Things *can* be vegetarian - friendly so easily. You can make a meatless baked ziti people can put a meat sauce on. You can offer an egg and cheese muffin people can add their own bacon to. You don't have to put the meat *in* everything. (In particular there's a lot of pork!)

What are they doing to practice that part currently? Nothing? I could probably wait a bit longer for my cabin to be ready for the sake of knowing the crew knew how to handle an emergency.

This has been a really informative discussion!! Much appreciated. I didn't understand at all what the purpose was of going to stand in the photo studio for a tedious and uncomfortable period of time, as we did once on the Celebrity Summit for muster. My muster experience has primarily been on Vision class ships where we all squish into the outside deck by the life boats, so I didn't grasp that muster wasn't just about preparing to get in life boats, and I certainly didn't appreciate what tasks the crew were practicing other than doing the live vest demo. Question -- could those drill tasks be accomplished after departing passengers leave and before arriving passengers embark, or is it important to have bodies to move out of the way as part of the drill?

Another note, I don't know if this is a "new menus" thing or an Enchantment thing or a since-2020 thing, but the desserts are way better than I remember! I almost never have had a memorable dessert in the Windjammer before and this cruise I've had several. Plus the brownies at Cafe Latte-tudes are amazing. This has been the plus side of the entree options being "meh.". If they were better I wouldn't have room for dessert.

I'm afraid that what folks who don't eat meat are looking for is not just another helping of broccoli florets. How about a quiche that doesn't have ham? A meatless sauce for pasta? A mushroom risotto made with vegetable broth? I am seeing fewer meatless entrees than I used to. I'm also seeing very inconsistent labeling--if certain mixed dishes are labeled "contains pork," you might think you could assume anything not so labeled doesn't contain pork...until you found the bits of ham... I'm still quite happy on this cruise, but the food isn't what I remember from the Before Times.

They did have Scotch eggs, but I didn't see sausage rolls. There was a version of bubble and squeak, in the form of pancakes. One pudding-in-a-plastic-cup was labeled trifle but I've seen the GBBO and can't be fooled.

Update! Update! Update! The app showing the menus coming up has been changed, and we are apparently scheduled to have a Spain theme and and India theme, Creole night, and an "all American classics" theme. The second Italian night is now Italy and France, which aligns with Italian night, take 2, in the MDR. There will be a Mediterranean night as well. This is a big improvement in variety over what the app was showing before. The food is ...fine.

As in the MDR, there is an Indian option every night, sometimes two, plus dal. It has usually, but not always, been the MDR offering. (We didn't get the lamb kofta.) We did get a Caribbean theme night when MDR had it, but I've previously seen some of my Caribbean favorites (oxtails) on other nights and have not this time. The MDR theme desserts have not been available in WJ (no tiramisu on Italian night or sticky toffee pudding on British night, which was renamed "from across the pond" in WJ). It's a 12 night cruise, which is how we're ending up with 3 Mexican nights.

Unfortunately, the WJ is following the MDR theme on our current cruise on Enchantment. Some, but not most, of the items on the DR menu are available in the WJ. We're having three Mexican nights and two Italian nights this cruise, but no Asian night in WJ because it's not a theme in MDR. I'm not too excited about an ENGLISH themed buffet.